Chaplains Corps

Overview

Lt. Dan Flores is in charge of the Police Chaplain Program for the Council Bluffs Police Department. The purpose of the Council Bluffs Police Department's Volunteer Chaplain Corps is to provide a ministry presence to law enforcement personnel, firefighting personnel, and members of their families in such areas of spiritual care and religious support.

Brief History

Former Police Chief Mark Moline first implemented the Chaplain Program in 1986. The first volunteer chaplain, an ordained minister, began working with the department the following year. By 1992, the department had five chaplains rotating on-call every six days. This core group of chaplains stayed active until 2003.

Re-institution of the Program

In May of 2009, under the direction of Police Chief Ralph O'Donnell and Captain Terry LeMaster, the Chaplain Program was given high priority to be re-instituted and the active recruitment of prospective chaplains began. This process resulted in the recruitment of seven ordained ministers who make up the volunteer Chaplain Corps. Each of the chaplains have received training on basic police procedures and also participate in regular ride-alongs with officers to better acquaint themselves with their police duties. Some of the chaplains have also attended critical incident stress management training and other ongoing chaplain training involving other metro area and regional chaplain organizations.

Chaplains’ Attire

The department provides each chaplain with a badge and wallet as well as a nylon windbreaker jacket that identifies them as a police chaplain. Our police union has also provided blue polo shirts and baseball hats identifying them as police chaplains. The department believes this attire brings uniformity and professionalism to the Chaplain Corps. The Chaplain Corps rotates every seven days and are available for emergency incidents.